{"id":13144,"date":"2021-12-02T16:21:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T16:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=13144"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","slug":"first-negro-classical-ballet-orbit-claudius-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/12\/02\/first-negro-classical-ballet-orbit-claudius-wilson\/","title":{"rendered":"First Negro Classical Ballet’s Orbit: Claudius Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Negro Classical Ballet and Claudius Wilson<\/b><\/h2>\n
\"First<\/a>
Click above to explore (or go back to) The First Negro Classical Ballet Orbit<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Claudius Wilson at the piano. Photo courtesy of Huntington Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Claudius <\/span>Wilson moved to Los Angeles around the time FNCB was created. He met Rickard at the Gray\u2019s Conservatory of Music when he was teaching piano. He was then persuaded by Joseph Rickard to join the company as their pianist and resident composer. After being with the group for a year, he began composing ballet scores and collaborated with Rickard on new productions for the company. One critic described his work as a \u201cNeo-Debussyan cocktail lounge piano score.\u201d He contributed works to FNCB productions like Harlot\u2019s House<\/em>, Raisin\u2019 Cane<\/em>, Cinderella<\/em>, <\/span>Pagliacci<\/em>, <\/span>and Swan Lake<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dance Moves: An African American Ballet Company in Postwar Los Angeles, University of La Verne<\/a><\/strong>
\nFirst Negro Classic Ballet Huge Success, Los Angeles Sentinel<\/a><\/strong>
\nNegro Classic Ballet holds Auditions, Los Angeles Sentinel<\/a><\/strong>
\nNegro Ballet, Los Angeles Sentinel<\/a><\/strong>
\nAll-Star Ballet Opens Fri. Night, Los Angeles Sentinel\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>
\nCentral Avenue and Beyond, Huntington Library<\/a><\/strong>
\nVaulted Ambitions: Stories From Where We Were To How We Got Here, Stage Raw<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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More about Claudius Wilson<\/b><\/h2>\n

Claudius Wilson studied at Dillard University in New Orleans. The fact that he was a Black composer broke the stereotype that Black musicians only specialized in jazz and popular music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dance Moves: An African American Ballet Company in Postwar Los Angeles, University of La Verne<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Deja Cunningham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Negro Classical Ballet and Claudius Wilson Claudius Wilson moved to Los Angeles around the time FNCB was created. He met […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"universe-template.php","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[282,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-first-negro-classical-ballet-constellation","category-universe","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13144"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15702,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13144\/revisions\/15702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}